“Don’t want to hear what you did the previous 29 years … what have you done for us lately (since 1984)?”
That’s how some 20 or 25 devoted Jayhawk loyalists I’ve talked to feel about the new point system for assigning athletic seating at Kansas University. Like it or lump it, it’s pretty much set in stone. It’s unfortunate it’s painful for so many.
Then there are callous yuppnicks and their ilk who have been itching to get their hands on the prime seats held so long by “blue-hairs,” as they refer to old-timers. Bottom line, it’s a cold-blooded situation that has been building for some time and won’t be going away. Same scenario next year?
There’s notable restlessness among natives that long, long service to KU and its sports programs means nothing until 1984. That’s when athletic department records were first logged for ticket purchases. Even then “service and devotion” might not cut the mustard unless substantial cash donations are added to the pot.
Who provided the backbone of ticket sales and fanfare between 1955 and 1984? What about their contributions to the department and the university? Take a widow whose husband had a great career at the university and also was quite a sports fan. She gets nothing in the way of points for that. If what that noted family has provided hasn’t occurred since ’84, sorry! Even then it might not fill the proper squares on the chart. But mainly it’s money.
Jackie Kennedy and her late husband, Max, had season tickets since 1955 in a good spot. To retain that spot, Jackie would have to cough up $58,000, the way it was figured for her. Will she be reassigned to one row short of the roof? Some people like Jerry Rogers and Max Rife have volunteered endlessly for key KU functions, like football line-stick management and the Kansas Relays. Not a single point for any of that.
One old-timer who has been an Allen Fieldhouse basketball regular since the place opened in 1955 is resigned to his and his wife’s fate: “My marginal math skills indicate that it costs about $100 a point to run up a good score. That’s too rich for my blood. I’ll see where they wind up putting me, and if it’s too bad, I’ll drop out (many say that). I’m tired, like a lot of us, of fighting it.”
Said another 1950s grad: “Whatever I’ve done for KU is out of love and respect and what it did for me, with no expectation of reward. Now you can buy that, like you used to be able to buy your way into heaven through the Vatican. How can young people ever get into the mix at today’s rates?”
It’s so sad to lose diehard supporters like that. As in most venues anymore, money talks, oh, so loudly.
At $100 a point, a score of 1,500, which might provide some pretty nifty locations, would cost $150,000 exclusive of 10 points each for such status as being a KU alum, a member of the alumni association, a facultonian, an athletic letter-winner, and so on. Truth is, people who now have such point totals are sitting in seats due to be upgraded while lower pointillists are reassigned toward the back of the bus.
Ticket-holders have been getting letters (accompanied by an elaborate seating chart and grading scale) that list the point totals the athletic department has compiled on the basis of their credentials, also where they rate on the current preference chart, like No. 1,500, 2,000, 2,500 or such.
Athletic officials are conducting sessions where people can appeal their standings and point totals, somewhat the way you challenge your property assessments. To the high credit of the KU folks, they are handling this operation in a pleasant, patient and considerate way and trying to help everyone understand. But just as it is when you visit the assessor for an adjustment, you better take good records to prove your claims. And you seldom win.
Pardon my sensitivity. I see pictures of fans waiting in lines at consultation sessions, and I’m reminded of people waiting hat in hand to get their citizenship papers or to find out if their parole has been approved. Maybe that’s the only way to do it, but it seems a bit much for mere athletic tickets.
“I find it demeaning to wait in line to justify my ticket location,” one of KU’s great ladies told me. “I got my letter, I see what they think my points are and where I stand; I’m just going to take what they give me. If it’s too bad, television will have to do. This is not the ‘dear old KU’ I’ve come to know; I worry about losing it in today’s financially driven world.”
There are constant rumors that big business is going to pour on the loot and snap up a lot of prime seats. KU says firms will be limited in possession, same as individuals. Critics add that a corporation can have a number of individuals make contributions and then toss the tickets into the company fish bowl. All this, of course, makes it tough for mere, uncredentialed “blue-hairs” to compete. And how bland and depart-early “fans” will these visiting corporate suits be?
The handwriting is on the wall. Some people will be deliriously happy with what they are able to buy, others will get shuffled around and feel their lengthy, devoted patronage has been disrespected, which it has.
Athletic director Lew Perkins has written fans saying that many schools simply put a price on a seat, and you cough up or go to the back of the line. He says you pay for an airline ticket on the basis of first-class, business and coach, and this is comparable. He and others also point to how many other schools, Missouri included, and Michigan in football, are on the same path.
Perkins sent a letter to one loyalist stressing severe funding problems for KU. Lew says, “I don’t believe seat location is more important than providing as many young men and women possible (550 at KU) the opportunity to attend the University of Kansas on scholarship. I doubt there are many people who would argue with that.”
All that makes me wonder about the alleged $500,000 package to hire a new women’s basketball coach, another half-million to pay off her previous contract and nearly another $300,000 for her staff and posh facilities. Bear in mind the women’s program consistently has been losing a million bucks per year. Anybody really looking into the cash drawer? Will the deficit for 2004-05 be $2 million-plus?
This is a thorny time for many, starting with the KU officials. They are struggling to solve a financial and prestige crisis and avoid cutting more sports. Lew Perkins was brought in by Bob Hemenway to “put some money in the pot, boy.” The high-priced director is trying to do just that in every way he and his people can dredge up.
Trouble is, the relentless drive to boost the sagging treasury and improve KU’s sorry recent overall athletic record is leaving a lot of good people, who have been so helpful for so long, caught in the grinding gears.
When Texas University’s athletic budget is some $70 million and KU’s isn’t even half that, something drastic must be tried. Just wish it could be far more friendly and compassionate to great people who are being priced out of the Jayhawk nest they’ve come to care about so much.
Interactive seating plan guide: See where your seats likely would have been last season
Calculate your point totals
6News video: KU officials try to clear questions about tickets (6-1-04)
Official KUAC seating breakdown by Allen Fieldhouse sections
Official KUAC seating breakdown by Allen Fieldhouse sections